Page:Columbus and other heroes of American discovery; (IA columbusotherher00bell).pdf/223

 feature of the coast, and seeking in vain for any harbor in which to anchor his vessels. Past Cape Blanco (N. lat. 42° 51´), to which the leader gave the name of Orford, in honor of the English nobleman bearing that title, Cape Disappointment (N. lat. 46° 19´,) and many another now well-known promontory, the little fleet slowly sailed, until, on the last day of April, the Straits of De Fuca were entered, and those discoveries began which opened a new era in our geographical knowledge of North-west America.

Entering the straits once supposed to lead direct into the Arctic Ocean, and carefully observing every peculiarity, alike of the shores of the long narrow island on the left and of the mainland on the right, our hero successfully navigated the Gulf of Georgia, crossed the 50th parallel of north latitude, and early in the summer of 1792, discovered the open sea-way leading back into the Pacific, to which he gave the name of Queen Charlotte's Sound.

The erroneous opinion still held by many, that the Straits of De Fuca were identical with the long-sought Gulf of Anian, and led direct to the Arctic Ocean, was now finally dispelled; and, resuming his survey of the Pacific seaboard beyond the most northerly limit of Vancouver's Island, the explorer next turned his attention to the labyrinth of sounds, inlets, and islands known as Prince of Wales, Duke of York, Admiralty, etc., the intricate windings of which had so long baffled the captains of trading and fishing vessels.

Before the close of the summer, the mouth of the supposed river, known as Cook's, flowing from Alaska into the Pacific a little above the 60th parallel of north latitude, was reached, and, sailing up, Vancouver ascertained it to be a close sound, thus solving a second of the problems of this hyperborean region, and finally proving the non-existence of any passage but Behring Straits from the Pacific to the Arctic Oceans. Cook's River, henceforth known to be an inlet only, though it retains its first misleading title in many modern atlases, was the most northerly limit of this great voyage of discovery; and the autumn of 1792 found Vancouver's battered little fleet entering the mouth of the Columbia River, which had been so named a few months before, after his own vessel, by a certain Captain Gray of Boston, who has been erroneously supposed to have been the first to discover it.

A thorough examination of this fine harbor, the only one of real importance between that of San Francisco on the south and Port Discovery on the north, completed Vancouver's explorations on this last trip to the West. He returned to England before the winter set in; and though his account of